Why use a panoramic head?

Fore­ground ob­jects can cause prob­lems, which a panoramic head elim­i­nates

The bridge we shot was a long way from the cam­era, so al­though the cam­era’s po­si­tion changed from one shot to the next, this tiny shift had no ef­fect. How­ever, if you in­clude ob­jects close to the cam­era you can get par­al­lax er­rors where the rel­a­tive po­si­tions of ob­jects in the frame change as you move the cam­era. This is where purists would swap to a panoramic tri­pod head.

Par­al­lax prob­lems

Here’s the prob­lem. The same tree ap­pears in two suc­ces­sive frames, but if you look closely at the road­side boxes be­hind it, you’ll see that their po­si­tions have changed rel­a­tive to the trunk – the cam­era has moved slightly.

Nodal pointers

This is where you need a proper panoramic tri­pod head. These have slid­ing plates which en­able you to po­si­tion the op­ti­cal cen­tre of the lens di­rectly above the pan­ning axis. When you turn the cam­era, there’s no more par­al­lax er­ror.